Beware The Batman
#9 - Control
Original Airdate - September 21st, 2013
Desperate to gain access to the Ion Cortex after the kidnapping failure of Jason Burr, the League of Assassins instead send one of their specialized members to steal the information from Burr's mind. Half human and half computer upgrade, the assassin Cypher breaks into Jason's lab and takes over his mind. Batman and Katana try to stop him, but Katana inadvertently allows herself to be captured when she sees Jason being harmed. Now controlling both Jason and Katana, Cypher escapes with Batman in pursuit. Now, Batman must not only face Cypher, but his well-trained protégé Katana!

Written by Curt Geda
Directed by Michael Stern
Media by Warner Bros. Animation

Images:

Analysis by Yojimbo:

I liked how Cypher was a bit offended when Batman called him a "psychotic machine." And win a woman's heart by using your prototype to project her likeness onto a building!

Additional commentary by Lerkero:

"Couldn't Detective Gordon use a less obvious way to communicate?"
"Even when I know you're coming I still can't get used to that."
"Yeah, that's it. I thought it could be one of your costumed friends."

I am really liking the humor dialog in Beware The Batman. It shows that the writers are very much self aware of some of the odd things about Batman's adventures and relationships.

The lighting and textures in this episode were done well too. Seeing the reflections in Cypher's outfit was unexpected. I still don't like the shininess in Batman's outfit, but for Cypher it definitely worked.

Throughout the episode I was really wondering if Cypher truly had no weakness to his ability, but the writers revealed it in an appropriate manner. I was wondering how long it would be before someone decided to attack Cypher rather than the person he was controlling.

It's disappointing that Jason's corruption was revealed at the end of the episode. The writers could have easily kept that hidden and made it a surprise later. First Dr. Ravencroft and now Jason. The writers aren't very good at building suspense. For example, I have noticed multiple times the mention of probability of success. The audience shouldn't be told something like that because it should be implied by the action itself. Batman had an 8% probability to free the subway train, but the action proceeded without it looking like he had much trouble. The 8% wasn't needed.